National Sorry Day

National Sorry Day is an Australia-wide observance held on May 26 each year. This day gives people the chance to come together and share the steps towards healing for the Stolen Generations, their families and communities. Stolen generations refer to Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their families and communities.

In providing an appropriate and timely reflection of the issues related to this topic, our Junior School students looked at an artwork by Artist Nyree (Ngari) Reynolds. In groups they studied the art and wrote down some ‘wonderings’ about the picture and what they thought it might be trying to express. Next, they listened to a story by an aboriginal elder who had had four generations of her family impacted by the stolen generation. She shared what the Sorry Day speech meant to her and her family.

She also shared how something practical everyone could do is to be educated on issues of the past. Students then thought of practical ways they could do this. Many created posters, information slide shows, dances and some are working creating awareness through a permanent monument somewhere around the school. At the end of the lesson students revisited the art work and discussed what they thought it might be expressing now they had a little more knowledge of the past.

The McDonald College is a strong advocate for turning the hurt from the past into something positive for our community and for our future generations, we appreciate the opportunity to embrace activities that enable us to combine rather than divide and hope in an understanding of diversity and richness we can shape a better future for all Australians old and new.

“In true reconciliation, through the remembering, the grieving and the healing we can come to terms with our conscience and become as one in the dreaming of this land.”

 

Evelyn Scott Chairperson, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, 27 May 2000.

Leanne Harrington

Head of Learning Enrichment